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Variation in dinosaur skeletochronology indicators: implications for age assessment and physiology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2016

John R. Horner ,
Armand de Ricqlès  and
Kevin Padian
John R. Horner
Affiliation:
Museum of the Rockies, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana 59717-0040. E-mail: jhorner@montana.edu
Armand de Ricqlès
Affiliation:
Équipe Formations Squelettiques, URA CNRS 11 37, Université Paris VII, 75251 Paris cedex 05, France Collège de France, Paris, France
Kevin Padian
Affiliation:
Department of Integrative Biology and Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-3140
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Abstract

Twelve different bones from the skeleton of the holotype specimen of the hadrosaurian dinosaur Hypacrosaurus stebingeri were thin-sectioned to evaluate the significance of lines of arrested growth (LAGs) in age assessments. The presence of an external fundamental system (EFS) at the external surface of the cortex and mature epiphyses indicate that the Hypacrosaurus specimen had reached adulthood and growth had slowed considerably from earlier stages. The number of LAGs varied from none in the pedal phalanx to as many as eight in the tibia and femur. Most elements had experienced considerable Haversian reconstruction that had most likely obliterated many LAGs. The tibia was found to have experienced the least amount of reconstruction, but was still not optimal for skeletochronology because the LAGs were difficult to count near the periosteal surface. Additionally, the numbers of LAGs within the EFS vary considerably around the circumference of a single element and among elements. Counting LAGs from a single bone to assess skeletochronology appears to be unreliable, particularly when a fundamental system exists.

Because LAGs are plesiomorphic for tetrapods, and because they are present in over a dozen orders of mammals, they have no particular physiological meaning that can be generalized to particular amniote groups without independent physiological evidence. Descriptions of dinosaur physiology as “intermediate” between the physiology of living reptiles and that of living birds and mammals may or may not be valid, but cannot be based reliably on the presence of LAGs.

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Articles
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Paleobiology , Volume 25 , Issue 3 , Summer 1999 , pp. 295 - 304
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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